Ram air Vs. Cold Air Intake

what are the differences between the two?I know ram air is more expensive but is the extra cost really worth it? And on a ram air hood to you need to buy a ducting kit or does the hood already have the ducts built in? I ask this cause i have seen hoods that say they have the ducts already in them and also seen ducting kits for ram air.

Cold air intakes are better then ram air because ram air always end up sucking in hot air from the radiator. Cold air takes air from out side the engine compartment that is much colder and denser then in side the compartment.

There are a few hoods out there.. Steel and fiberglass.. I've had both

Steel Ram air and Cowl From Goodmark

And Ram air from .Cervini's.
Now in this pic is a hood from Goodhood(Keystone) and the Cervini. Differance? The Goodhood has duct that goes to the Air box, The Cervini is just open for air to flow in. How much air are you getting in those hoods? Not much... Between the two The strut brace on the Cervini is much stronger the Goodhood one on my friends is all cracked, Cervini's is a better built hood..

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The Steel hoods that you see on top Both are open in the back (Cowl) The Ramair is not open.. There are a few other Co's that make hoods for our trucks Like RK Sport and Reflection..

You gotta remember.. Your driving a 5000lbs Brick which moves the air in front of it out of the way.. If anything With the open rears or both front and rear you may cool the motor more.. Some have put air intakes by the Tow hooks or under the front bumper.. You will get cooler air down there BUT how much you get up by the air box I'm not sure
My friend Adams truck has it below the bumper Hard to see in this pic...

IMO, using your butt-dyno, you won't see any difference between ram, CAI and factory. It (Ram, or CAI) may sound nicer, and that can make it worth the money.

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This is spot on. Street machines spend little time at WOT. WOT is where ram air, cowl induction, and CAI's tend to matter...

Basically, if you don't intend to use ram air or cowl induction to duct cooler, faster, higher pressure air to the intake AND properly craft/tune the intake (specifically for your truck's engine at a given speed and air pressure) such that, together, they produce a resonant supercharging effect ... then your ram air or cowl induction is just for looks.

If you DO duct and tune properly, you'll get the effect of having a light supercharger ... at a given speed and air pressure (for which you tuned) ... without the supercharger (because it's based purely on physics and pressure differentials) ... and you'll see a mild boost in ponies at that given speed ... at the expense of fuel, of course (because you'll burn more), presuming you've also tweaked the exhaust system to allow your engine to properly exhale.

This really makes no sense for street machines because the place you tend to want to do this is at wide open throttle at top speed without the effect ... such that when you get there you receive a little kick. It makes a lot of sense for racing machines. Few are the people who can properly tune this, themselves, as there's a good bit of measurement, math, and physics involved. It's definitely NOT a bolt-on type of thing to do it, properly.

As for CAI's ... it's the same sort of thing. Yes, they deliver cooler, denser air to the engine compared with warmer air from the engine compartment. No, it's not human-noticeable and, no, it's not going to get you piles of ponies or mpg's. Yes, it's measurable on a dyno, especially at WOT, where 3F degrees cooler can make a minor but measurable difference. The biggest difference CAI's tend to make ... is in how your engine sounds, not how it performs.

I put a unknown cowl induction hood, I bought it used on craigslist for $100. It was cheap because the whole passenger side corner was broke off, had to refiberglass the whole thing and build it back up. It is functional, as you can see from the underside shot. I chose to buy a GREEN intake kit, which seals pretty good on this hood but not perfect. The only definitive information I can give you as far as performance goes is this, I have a CST monitoring device in my truck. I watched the MAF reading for several weeks after the install, It multiplied the % by at least triple fold. I do believe it sucks a lot more air than it used to, I have not had it retuned since I did this. If you don't retune you won't get anything anyways, I have hptuners but am too lazy.

I put a unknown cowl induction hood, I bought it used on craigslist for $100. It was cheap because the whole passenger side corner was broke off, had to refiberglass the whole thing and build it back up. It is functional, as you can see from the underside shot. I chose to buy a GREEN intake kit, which seals pretty good on this hood but not perfect. The only definitive information I can give you as far as performance goes is this, I have a CST monitoring device in my truck. I watched the MAF reading for several weeks after the install, It multiplied the % by at least triple fold. I do believe it sucks a lot more air than it used to, I have not had it retuned since I did this. If you don't retune you won't get anything anyways, I have hptuners but am too lazy.